Friday, August 25, 2023

"I Don't Believe..."

"I don’t believe in ‘original sin.’ I don’t believe in ‘guilt.’ I don’t believe in villains or heroes – only right or wrong ways that individuals have taken, not by choice but by necessity or by certain still-uncomprehended influences in themselves, their circumstances, and their antecedents. This is so simple I’m ashamed to say it, but I’m sure it’s true. In fact, I would bet my life on it! And that’s why I don’t understand why our propaganda machines are always trying to teach us, to persuade us, to hate and fear other people on the same little world that we live in.”
- Tennessee Williams

Dan, I Allegedly, "Fire On Aisle 9"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly 8/25/23
"Fire On Aisle 9"
"Retail crime has gotten so bad. A man went into a Florida, Walgreens, and was furious that they didn’t have his prescription. So, he set the place on fire. We are seeing so much happening with the economy and all the news is bad. Layoffs and downgrade."
Comments here:

Bill Bonner, "Liberty Yields"

"Liberty Yields"
Exploding deficits, the trouble with tariffs, 
deciding deciders and more affronts to freedom...
by Bill Bonner

"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground. One of the most profound preferences in human nature is for satisfying one’s needs and desires with the least possible exertion; for appropriating wealth produced by the labor of others, rather than producing it by one’s own labor…the stronger and more centralized the government, the safer would be the guarantee of such monopolies; in other words, the stronger the government, the weaker the producer, the less consideration need be given him and the more might be taken away from him." ~ Thomas Jefferson

Poitou, France - "This just in…from Bloomberg: "US Budget Deficits Are Exploding Like Never Before." "The outlook for the federal budget right now is essentially unprecedented - crisis-size deficits as far as the eye can see, even though the economy appears to be in good health. That prospect is making investors uneasy, as demonstrated by yields on benchmark 10-year Treasuries climbing above 4.3% this week, their highest levels since 2007. Other borrowing costs are rising in tandem: The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage has surged above 7% for the first time in more than two decades."

Woe to the Little People: Yes, the deep currents of megapolitics are carrying us along…towards a more and more powerful government…and a weaker and weaker private sector. More win-lose deals; fewer win-win deals. More slaves to the ruling class…fewer free men and women.

It doesn’t seem to matter what we say or think…the trend appears unstoppable. Little by little…and then by huge leaps…the ‘The People’ lose their liberty, their money, and their power. Just this week, we saw two political cartoons mocking Trump supporters as silly bumpkins. One showed a country-western singer blaming his misfortunes on Joe Biden (as if the idea were absurd). Another shows a group of ‘magats’ reminding each other to yell out “Hunter Biden” in defense of their leader. You can’t make fun of women, blacks, gays, trans folks, immigrants, Asians, cripples, Indians, or dozens of other protected species. But it’s open season, 12 months of the year, on America’s ‘little people;’ they are always deplorable.

One of the biggest disappointments in the GOP presidential debate this week was that not one of the candidates wanted to tell them. For if they came clean, they’d have to admit that their latest and greatest president, Donald J. Trump, was a rascal, a fool, and a useful stooge for the elites. No president ever spread so much red ink…did so much damage to US finances…or so thoroughly discredited his supporters, and the conservative opposition to Big Government.

And now, the latest from Mr. Trump shows us again what a Big Government man he is. Yahoo Finance: "Even economists in Donald Trump’s circle were cringing Tuesday at the former president’s suggestion of a 10% tariff on all goods entering the United States. Kyle Pomerleau, a tax expert at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, told Semafor the proposed levy could raise about $300 billion in new revenue from US firms and consumers. “Ultimately, both Americans and our trading partners are going to be poorer due to this policy,” he said."

Money of Doubtful Value: There are only two choices. Either the “The People” spend their money as they want and get what they deserve…or the deciders do it for them. Tariffs are another way liberty yields and government power grows. That’s why tariffs…along with all forms of government control of the economy…are so popular among the ruling classes. Here’s Clyde Prestowitz, justifying more political control of the economy:

"America needs…to manufacture more, transfer less technology and production to China, enhance and expand industrial policies at home, and build close ties to developing countries that are democracies with values closer to our own. America must aim to be the workshop of the world in as many advanced technologies as possible while limiting its dependence on China and other hostile nations to the minimum extent possible."

‘America’ has no ‘needs.’ And if it were a free country, its citizens would decide for themselves what they needed. Mr. Prestowitz claims to know what you need…better than you know yourself!

The US is not at war with China. China presents no clear and present danger to Americans. Instead, as one of our main trading partners, she provides goods and services to American households…in exchange for ‘money’ of doubtful value. But a military/industrial complex seeks hostility. And a corrupt elite – the rich men north of Richmond – crave power. And so it was that Mr. Biden, on his own say so, decreed a new ‘thou shalt not’ to American investors.

Geopolitical Shadowboxing: This came in last week; The New York Times: "President Biden escalated his confrontation with China on Wednesday by signing an executive order banning American investments in key technology industries that could be used to enhance Beijing’s military capabilities, the latest in a series of moves putting further distance between the world’s two largest economies.

The order will prohibit venture capital and private equity firms from pumping money into Chinese efforts to develop semiconductors and other microelectronics, quantum computers and certain artificial intelligence applications. Administration officials stressed that the move was tailored to guard national security, but China is likely to see it as part of a wider campaign to contain its rise.

A series of expanding export controls on key technologies to China has already triggered retaliation from Beijing, which recently announced the cutoff of metals like gallium that are critical for the Pentagon’s own supply chain."

If you buy bread from the baker you increase his wherewithal to buy a gun…and to shoot you with it. Normally, you judge the likelihood of his gunning down his best customer to be less of a bad thing than the obvious good thing you get from his donuts. In a free society, we each use our own judgment and take our chances. But as the power of the elite grows, the deciders decide for us. They say they are protecting our freedom."

"How It Really Is"

 

Jim Kunstler, "Campaign Photo"

"Campaign Photo"
by Jim Kunstler

“Georgia could determine who is our next president. A TEAM of lawyers needs to watch them count every single vote. They can start in Fulton County where we are having water leaks.” - Fulton County DA Fani Willis, Nov. 4, 2020

"What to make of this mugshot? Serious as a heart attack? I’d hate to be you on that fateful day? Table turner? Energy shift? Game on? Daddy’s in da house? Good career move? You can run but you can’t hide? Please, Br’er Fox, don’t fling me in that-there briar patch…!

Good luck trying this case, DA Fani Willis. And by all means roll the TV cameras in the courtroom. You are about to supplant the Scopes trial of 1925 as the most notoriously ridiculous piece of legal work in US history. That one, over in Tennessee, was called “the Monkey Trial” when a high school teacher named John Scopes was charged with teaching the theory of evolution in his biology class. It got the national news spotlight for the duration. The state enlisted three-time Democratic presidential nominee Williams Jennings Bryan as a special prosecutor. Poor Bryan, famously sweating in the southern July heat, was made a fool of by Chicago lawyer for the defense Clarence Darrow. Bryan died of a stroke days after the conclusion of the trial. It also killed what remained of his reputation.

This week, DA Willis staged the circus parade of bookings, forcing the large cast of indictees - most of them attorneys for Mr. Trump - to submit to the finger-printing and mugshot ceremony in the county jail, in case any of them had thoughts of decamping to Uruguay. The cable news peanut gallery went berserk with glee at the humiliation of election denial celebrities Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell especially. On Thursday, attorney Kenneth Chesebro, who advised Georgia GOP officials on the process of assembling alternate electors in the case of election fraud under Georgia law, demanded a speedy trial.

Under Georgia’s speedy trial law, Mr. Chesebro’s trial would have to take place this fall. (Such are the guiles of the law.) The Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper called it, “an aggressive filing.” Ms. Willis had hoped to try all 19 defendants together during the 2024 presidential primary season, to support her RICO charges. Meanwhile, three other defendants, including former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, filed to have their cases removed to the federal court, in so far as the actions they are accused of taking happened while they worked in the service of the US government. Mr. Meadows is accused of seeking by email to get the phone number of a Pennsylvania election official.

Ms. Willis’s case hinges on a number of novel propositions. First, that it is somehow against the law to object to the outcome of an election. And second, that the process for relief in such a case, as provided in Georgia’s election contest law and the US Electoral Count Act of 1887, does not apply to Mr. Trump and his lawyers. Anyone who intends to challenge the outcome must necessarily assemble a panel of alternate electors if state officials cannot certify the election properly and in good faith. Ms. Willis refers to these erroneously as “fake electors.” Mr. Trump and his co-defendants will necessarily have to present evidence that the Georgia presidential election of 2020 was not certified properly or in good faith.

Will the defendants be allowed to present evidence of serious irregularities in the 2020 Georgia election results? If not, would that not be grounds for dismissal? So far, Democrats in charge of the machinery of law all over the country have skated on mere assertions that the 2020 election was fair. In Georgia, none of the principals involved in the dispute have been subject to cross-examination, the best instrument for truth-finding in the American legal system. Georgia Governor Brian Kemp and Sec’y of State Brad Raffensperger may not be so hot for an airing of what actually went on Nov 3, 2000 and the days after, especially the validity of over 100,000 mail-in ballots in a state where “Joe Biden’s” margin of victory was a mere 11,799 votes.

Mr. Trump seems to be thriving under the tribulation of four court cases brought against him as he runs for election in 2024. Each new set of charges boosts his poll numbers. It helps him hugely that the cases are transparently idiotic and mendacious. If he is initially convicted in any of them, he can still run for president and be elected, even if he’s jailed - as Eugene Debs did in 1920 getting 913,693 votes running on the Socialist Party from the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, where he was jailed under the 1917 Espionage Act for speaking out against America’s entry into the First World War.

The Party of Chaos is running scared. Everybody knows that “Joe Biden” can’t possibly run for another term and yet the public debate is so grotesquely disabled that nobody will talk about it. Most particularly, they will not talk about who might take his place. All they are really demonstrating with this barrage of prosecutions against their chief adversary is how broken, craven, and degenerate the party is, and what a menace it is, as they like to say, to our democracy."

"Russia/Ukraine War Update 8/25/23"

Scott Ritter, 8/25/23
"Stupidity on a Massive Scale"
"Scott Ritter is a former Marine intelligence officer who served in the former Soviet Union, implementing arms control agreements, and on the staff of General Norman Schwartzkopf during the Gulf War, where he played a critical role in the hunt for Iraqi SCUD missiles. From 1991 until 1998, Mr. Ritter served as a Chief Inspector for the United Nations in Iraq, leading the search for Iraq’s proscribed weapons of mass destruction. Mr. Ritter was a vocal critic of the American decision to go to war with Iraq. His new book, "Disarmament in the Time of Perestroika: Arms Control and the End of the Soviet Union," is his ninth."
Comments here:
o
Judge Napolitano, Judging Freedom 8/25/23
"Ukraine's Dire Situation 
w/Alastair Crooke fmr Brit Ambassador"
Comments here:

"Massive Change Is Coming, And If You're Not Ready You Are Done"

Full screen recommended.
Gregory Mannarino, AM 8/25/23
"Massive Change Is Coming, 
And If You're Not Ready You Are Done"
Comments here:

"Outrageous Price Increases At Walmart! This Is Ridiculous! What's Next?"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, 8/25/23
"Outrageous Price Increases At Walmart! 
This Is Ridiculous! What's Next?"
"In today's vlog, we are at Walmart and are noticing some outrageous price increases on groceries! This is not good as grocery prices have already reached an all-time high! It's getting rough out here as more and more families struggle to put food on the table!"
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
Travelling With Russell, 8/25/23
"Russian Typical Supermarket: 
What Are They Like In 2023?"
 "How have the last 2 years of increased sanctions affected Russian typical Supermarkets? What are the prices like? Which brands left Russia, and which ones remain?"
Comments here:

Thursday, August 24, 2023

"Jeremiah Babe, 8/24/23"

Full screen recommended.
Jeremiah Babe, 8/24/23
"Leaving California Texas Road Trip; 
Broke People Fear What's Coming; Dollar Stores Feel Pain"
Comments here:

"You've Been Warned: Leave While You Can"

Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 8/24/23
"You've Been Warned: Leave While You Can"
Comments here:

We're dead...

"Dick’s Sporting Goods Is Falling Apart Right Now As All Hell Is Breaking Loose In The Retail Market"

Full screen recommended.
"Dick’s Sporting Goods Is Falling Apart Right Now 
As All Hell Is Breaking Loose In The Retail Market"
by Epic Economist, 8/24/23

"The largest omni-channel sporting goods retailer in the U.S., Dick’s Sporting Goods, is facing a total nightmare right now. With shares crashing by 25%, profits plunging, and serious inventory imbalances, the company is looking at hundreds of millions in lost revenue. The famous chain, which sells major brands like Adidas, Gatorade, Nike, Peloton, Under Armour, and more, is alerting about an issue that is becoming increasingly common in the retail industry. While consumers are expected to deal with more empty shelves and price increases, thousands of struggling businesses will likely be pushed an edge closer to bankruptcy due to this growing problem.

On Tuesday, the leading omni-channel chain reported a 23% drop in profits for the second quarter. Executives cited falling sales of outdoor gear and extensive inventory losses caused by a retail theft boom as some of the main reasons behind the poor performance.

In a single day, the retailer saw its shares lose almost a quarter of their value amid the worst selloff in its 75-year history. Dick’s Sporting Goods stock crashed by 22% on Tuesday, another 3.4% on Wednesday, and started the day today on a very bad note. Early trading data shows that losses are nearing the 27% mark already. That’s the biggest losing streak for the company in at least six years, Business Insider reports. Dick’s Sporting Goods reported net income of $244 million last quarter, down from the $318.5 million in the same three-month period in 2022. Meanwhile, earnings-per-share missed investors’ expectations by almost a dollar, coming in at $2.82 while analysts predicted it would hoover around $3.81 per share.

Dick's isn't alone in ringing alarm bells over shoplifting and lost inventory. The “shrink” problem has also been cited by companies like Target, beauty retailer Ulta, and TJX. In fact, data compiled by Bloomberg showed that U.S. retailers mentioned shrink more last quarter than any other quarter on record.

insurance company Travelers highlighted that theft from physical stores is just one aspect of this growing epidemic. The entire supply chain is being impacted by this trend. Researchers found that theft of items coming into port or being stored in warehouses surged by a whopping 600% this year, particularly shipments of food and beverage, home goods, and electronics.

But that’s not the only significant threat these businesses are coping with right now. An analysis published by Allianz Trade exposes a rather bleak view of the future for many retailers. Most increases in turnover are often purely owed to price increases while sales volumes are sharply dropping. Costs are rising while profits are falling in the second half of the year. Many retailers are already heavily in debt and find it harder to meet their obligations due to soaring interest rates. “We foresee a very difficult period. Retail has plenty of other concerns: staff shortages, rising wages, and higher energy costs. For many products, those higher costs cannot simply be passed on to higher prices,” they wrote. That means many companies will take a hit on their bottom lines.

At the moment, retailers en masse are predicting worst-case scenarios and bracing for a serious recession. Thousands of companies that are hanging by a thread are facing a real possibility of going out of business in a few short months. Put differently, the rapid changes in the industry are just a hint of the devastating crisis that is about to unfold."
Comments here:

Musical Interlude: Deuter, "Atmospheres"

Deuter, "Atmospheres"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"Light-years across, this suggestive shape known as the Seahorse Nebula appears in silhouette against a rich, luminous background of stars. Seen toward the royal northern constellation of Cepheus, the dusty, obscuring clouds are part of a Milky Way molecular cloud some 1,200 light-years distant.
Click image for larger size.
It is also listed as Barnard 150 (B150), one of 182 dark markings of the sky cataloged in the early 20th century by astronomer E. E. Barnard. Packs of low mass stars are forming within, but their collapsing cores are only visible at long infrared wavelengths. Still, the colorful stars of Cepheus add to this pretty, galactic skyscape."

"Anyone Who Isn't Confused..."

"Anyone who isn't confused really doesn't understand the situation."
- Edward R. Murrow

"October Looks Like A Perfect Storm Of Converging 'Coincidences'”

"It'll probably start on a Friday..."
"October Looks Like A Perfect Storm 
Of Converging 'Coincidences'”
By Financealot

"Everything seems coordinated to hit in October:
1) Student loan payments resume.
2) Government budget shutdown October 2nd.
3) Virus lockdowns.
4) Bank failures.
5) FEMA & FCC Nationwide Emergency Alert Test for October 4th.

Just when you thought the debt ceiling issues were over, the government is ready to shutdown on Oct 2, 2023. This is the exact same day markets fell apart in 2008 & would absolutely trigger the same panic. Coincidence? This appears to be the narrative. 10 weeks from today is Monday October 2nd.
Click image for larger size.

Steps:
1) Credit downgrade so nations dump US treasuries.
2) Rapidly raise rates.
3) Restrict swap lines causing Dollar shortage.
4) Stage "incident".
5) Dollar skyrockets.
6) Panic spreads to financial system.
7) Nations collapse.
8) Print trillions and buy your cheap debt.
9) Great Reset."
Notice how all the ratings agencies suddenly decided to do their job & downgrade at the same time. Seems coordinated don't you think?"

"Russia/Ukraine War Update 8/24/23"

Colonel Douglas Macgregor, Straight Calls 8/24/23
"Disastrous Attacks Into Russian Defenses"
"Analysis of breaking news and in-depth discussion of current
 geopolitical events in the United States of America and the world."
Comments here:
o
Redacted, 8/24/23
"Scott Ritter: 'The CIA Is Working Directly With Ukraine'”
"Scott Ritter is a former UN Weapons Inspector who exposed the lies in Iraq. He told the world that Saddam Hussein didn't have weapons of mass destruction. Powerful people in Washington didn't want to hear it and he resigned in protest. The War in Iraq cost millions of lives and trillions of dollars. Now Ritter is revealing the truth about the latest U.S. military incursions in Ukraine, Syria, and beyond."
Comments here:

Dan, I Allegedly "Beware of the New Identity Theft"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly PM 8/24/23
"Beware of the New Identity Theft"
People are getting more creative when it comes to stealing our identities. You need to be protecting yourself every chance you get. If you ever see any mail or anything that looks suspicious, it is."
Comments here:

The Daily "Near You?"

Albemarle, North Carolina, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Here's A Question..."

“Here’s a question every angry man and woman needs to consider: How long are you going to allow people you don’t even like – people who are no longer in your life, maybe even people who aren’t even alive anymore – to control your life? How long?” - Andy Stanley

“That goes for old wounds, too, you know. I really wish we’d had the chance to talk before this,” he says, cracking the window so the smoke can escape. “There’s a Longfellow quote I have stuck on my bulletin board at the church office – ‘There is no grief like the grief that does not speak’ – and it’s true. I’ve found that keeping pain inside doesn’t give it a chance to heal, but bringing it out into the light, holding it right there in your hands and trusting that you’re strong enough to make it through, not hating the pain, not loving it, just seeing it for what it really is can change how you go on from there. Time alone doesn’t heal emotional wounds, and you don’t want to live the rest of your life bottled up with anger and guilt and bitterness. That’s how people self-destruct.” - Laura Wiess

The Poet: A. J. Constance, "All of Us Here On This Spinning Blue World"

"All of Us Here On This Spinning Blue World"

"Let's not plan too much
or expect
or promise
or say how much
or how little
or outline how things must be
or how they must not be.

All of us here on this beautiful
spinning blue world,
let's just love each other
from one millisecond to the next
as much as we can."

- A. J. Constance
o
Full screen recommended.
The Moody Blues, "Blue World"

'It Just Means..."

 

“5 Painfully Obvious Truths We Tend to Forget in Hard Times”

“5 Painfully Obvious Truths
We Tend to Forget in Hard Times”
by Angel Chernoff

“This is going to have a beginning, a middle, and an end.  
We are going to get through this, I promise, 
and we’re going to get through it together. “
- Dr. Jon LaPook

“You know how you can read or hear something dozens of times in dozens of different ways before it finally sinks in? The little truths listed below fall firmly into that category – timeless life lessons that many of us likely learned years ago, and have been reminded of ever since, yet for whatever reason we tend to forget in the heat of the moment. This, my friends, is my attempt at helping all of us, myself included, “get it” and “remember it” once and for all…

1. Life is short, and nothing is guaranteed. We know deep down that life is short, and that death will happen to all of us eventually, and yet we are infinitely surprised when it happens to someone we know. It’s like walking up a flight of stairs with a distracted mind, and misjudging the final step. You expected there to be one more stair than there is, and so you find yourself off balance for a moment, before your mind shifts back to the present moment and how the world really is.

LIVE your life TODAY! Don’t ignore death but don’t be afraid of life either. Be afraid of a life you never lived because you were too afraid to take positive action today. Death is not the greatest loss in life, neither is illness. The greatest loss is what dies inside you while you’re still alive and well. Even in these difficult times, be bold, be courageous, be scared to death, and then take the next step anyway. Just change the way you do it.

Invest your heart and soul into whatever you have right in front of you. Bring passion into otherwise ordinary moments. You don’t have to be surrounded by lots of people. You don’t have to be going anyplace new, passionately engage in each moment.

2. Everything will change again soon. Embrace change and realize in many ways it’s necessary. It won’t always be obvious at first, but in the end most forms of change are worthwhile because they force us to grow. So keep yourself in check right now.

What you have today may become what you had by tomorrow. You never know. Things change, often spontaneously. People and circumstances come and go. Life doesn’t stop for anybody. It moves rapidly and rushes from calm to chaos in a matter of seconds, and happens like this to people every day. It’s likely happening to someone nearby right now.

Sometimes the shortest split second in time changes the direction of our lives. A seemingly innocuous decision rattles our whole world like a meteorite striking Earth. Entire lives have been swiveled and flipped upside down, for better or worse, on the strength of an unpredictable event, and these events are always happening. 

So just remember, however good or bad a situation is now, it will change. That’s the one thing you can count on. Accept it. Breathe. Be where you are. You’re where you need to be right now. There’s a time and place for everything, and every hard step is necessary. Just keep doing your best, and don’t force what’s not yet supposed to fit into your life. When it’s meant to be, it will be.

3. Changing your response is what puts you back in control. Have patience with everything that remains unresolved in your head and heart. And realize that patience is not about waiting, but the ability to keep a good attitude while working hard to stay true to your intuition and values. This is your life, and it is governed by your choices. May your actions speak louder than your words. May your daily choices preach louder than your lips. May your inner sense of satisfaction be your noise in the end.

And if your present life only teaches you one thing, let it be that taking a passionate leap is always worth it. Even if you have no idea where you’re going to land – even when there are so many unknowns – be brave enough to stand up and listen to your heart. Remember that the most powerful moments in life happen when you find the courage to let go of what can’t be changed. Because when you are no longer able to change a situation, you are challenged to change yourself – to grow beyond the unchangeable. And that changes everything! (Marc and I discuss this in more detail in the “Passion and Growth” chapter of “1,000 Little Things Happy, Successful People Do Differently.“)

4. Life’s storms can be a great source of strength. Hard times are like strong storms that blow against you. And it’s not just that these storms hold you back from places you might otherwise go. They also tear away from you all but the essential parts of your ego that cannot be torn, so that afterward you see yourself as you really are, and not merely as you might like to be.

Ultimately, you realize you are here to endure these storms, to sacrifice your time and risk your heart. You are here to be bruised by life. And when it happens that you are hurt, or betrayed, or rejected, let yourself sit quietly with your eyes closed and remember all the good times you had, and all the sweetness you tasted, and everything you learned. Tell yourself how amazing it was to live, and then open your eyes and live some more.

Because to never struggle would be to never grow. You must let go of who you were so you can become who you are. Again, it is within the depths of the strongest and darkest storms that you discover within you an inextinguishable light, and it is this light that illuminates the path forward.

5. You don’t need all the answers right now. Accept the feeling of not knowing exactly where you are going, and train yourself to love and appreciate this sensation of freedom. Because it is only when you are suspended in the air, with no destination in sight, that you force your wings to open fully so you can fly. And as you soar around you still may not know where you’re traveling to. But that’s not what’s important. What’s important is the opening of your wings. You may not know where you’re going, but you know that so long as your wings are spread, the winds will carry you forward.

Truth be told, some of the greatest outcomes that transpire in your life will be the ones you never even knew you wanted. As long as you keep your mind open to new perspectives and yourself moving forward, there really are no wrong turns in life, only paths you didn’t know you were meant to travel. And you never can be certain what’s around the corner.  It could be everything, or it could be nothing. You keep gliding steadily forward, and then one day you realize you’ve come a long way from where you started.

All details aside, someday all the pieces will come together. Unimaginably good outcomes will likely transpire in your life, even if everything doesn’t turn out exactly the way you had anticipated. And you will look back at the hard times that have passed, smile, and ask yourself… “How in the world did I get through all of that?”

"How It Really Is"

 

"Modern Monetary Quackery (MMQ)"

"Modern Monetary Quackery (MMQ)"
What you get when you expect something for nothing...
by Bill Bonner and Joel Bowman

"Politicians need to reject the urge to ask “How are we going to pay for it?” We must give up our obsession with trying to “pay for” everything with new revenue or spending cuts. Once we understand that money is a legal and social tool, no longer beholden to the false scarcity of the gold standard, we can focus on what matters most: the best use of natural and human resources to meet current social needs and to sustainably increase our productive capacity to improve living standards for future generations…"
~ “Three prominent MMT adherents,” Kelton, Bernal, and Carlock

Normandy, France - "What a delight it must be to wake up each morning with no memory. No past. Nothing to regret. Nothing to hide. No hangover. No ‘baby daddy’ worries. Economists are usually a little cynical…a tad suspicious…even skeptical. They know there’s always a price…and that for every entry on the credit side of the ledger, there’s a debit too. So, it must be a treat to meet Stephanie Kelton (one of the economists noted above.) The woman seems to have been born yesterday. She probably doesn’t realize it, but there’s nothing very ‘modern’ about Modern Monetary Theory. To call it ‘monetary’ is a bit of a stretch too, since it is really a notion of how to use fiscal policy. As for theory…don’t make us laugh.

No Free Lunch: Thinking you can get something for nothing is not exactly new. Nor is the idea that the state (the government) can create real ‘money’ by cutting down trees and printing up pieces of paper with dead presidents on them. Nor is the idea that the feds can use this ‘money’ to ‘Build Back Better’…by ‘investing’ it in worthy projects. These are not new ideas. They are simply old crackpot delusions. Someone should tell her.

The Argentine government has been practicing a kind of MMT fiscal policy for decades. It prints money, lots of it. It uses the money – as all politicians claim – on ‘what matters most.’ But boo hoo…by the end of the year, about half the value of every new peso it prints will disappear. Another couple of years and it will be all gone. What kind of money is that? Can you really use it to make investments that will pay off for future generations? Apparently not. There used to be an expression: ‘as rich as an Argentine.’ No one has heard that for years.

And just look at America’s big public ‘investments’ of the last half century. Campaigns against drugs, poverty, terrorists…money printing extravaganzas that left people poorer than they were before. The feds were ready to “invest” someone else’s money – in safer streets…in stronger GDP growth…in healthier citizens…in better schools and smarter kids…in fighting racism…in promoting equality…but are the streets safer? Are the schools better? Are the kids smarter? Are we healthier? Happier?

Fatter, Sadder, Less Productive: The whole idea of investing is to give up something – current consumption – in order to get a payoff later. A profit. An advantage. You should be richer after making the investment, not poorer. Between 1999 and 2023, the US feds made net ‘investments’ (beyond current income from taxation) of $27 trillion. That’s how much federal debt increased during that period. If those investments had been remotely profitable, they’d be paying a dividend. Where is it? Instead, we’re adding to US debt at the rate of $5 billion per day over the next 10 years.

The latest ‘investment’ scam comes to us from the Biden bunch – the Inflation Reduction Act. With a straight face, The Economist reports: "Big investments have begun. Most of the money spent under the IRA goes towards combating climate change. The earliest data show that companies that make clean-energy kit (like wind turbines and solar panels) are ramping up production. The American Clean Power Association, a trade group, says that 83 manufacturing plants have been announced since the bill’s passage. More than 50 will produce solar-power equipment. The rest will make wind-turbine parts or batteries. Together the projects represent $270bn of investment - equal to the previous seven years of clean-energy investment combined, according to the trade group. Firms have also announced $53bn of investment in factories making electric vehicles (EVs) and components they use, like batteries and chargers, according to a tracker run by Jay Turner of Wellesley College."

Many clean-energy projects will go to red states, be it to wind farms in the plains or hydrogen hubs in Texas or Utah (consortia in both states are bidding for the latter). Mr Turner’s tracker finds that $47.5bn of EV investments are heading to Republican districts, compared with $6.7bn destined for Democratic ones. That means - at least with Mr Biden in the White House - that the IRA is probably safe from serious Republican opposition.

Bipartisan Swindles: Yes, the Republicans are in on it too. Another bi-partisan fraud. A classic rip-off. The benefits go to the few; the costs are borne by the many. MMT suggests that 1) there is an infinite amount of capital (so you don’t have to give up anything to make an investment) and, 2) the feds can do a better job of investing it than its rightful owners.

Are the investment geniuses behind the scenes at the Biden administration such better investors? Do they see opportunities that the sharp eyes on Wall Street have missed? Only someone who was born yesterday could think so. But the deeper naïveté…bordering on insanity…is MMT’s view of money itself. Kelton et al imagine that ‘money’ is no longer scarce. In theory, the feds can print as much as they want. But in practice, the more they print, the less their money is worth. Real money represents real resources – time, energy, skills, brainpower. These real resources are always scarce. If they weren’t scarce there would be no reason to invest to get more of them…and no reason for MMT’s magical thinking.

We all want to believe that if we close our eyes tightly enough…and wish hard enough…our dreams can come true. More reliably, we ‘invest’ to bring forth more good things because the good things we have aren’t good enough for us. If we really had an infinite amount of money, we wouldn’t have to wish…or invest. We could buy an infinite amount of goods and services…and there would be no need for Ms. Kelton’s advice on how to get more."
o
Joel’s Note: "Alas, despite Ms. Kelton & Co.’s wishful thinking, there is no deus ex machina in this modern monetary movie… no escaping the harsh reality imposed by the foundational laws of economics… and certainly, without a doubt, no free lunch.

Satisfying infinite needs with finite resources (including money itself)… that is the task of economics. Were resources infinite – that is, if they took no time or effort to procure, and if doing so did in no way deplete their boundless reserves – then there would be no need for such quaint anachronisms as, say, “private property.”

In such a fantasyland…Who would go to the trouble of robbing Peter to pay Paul… when one could simply wish money into existence? Why smash and grab at the local CVS… when you could simply pay for whatever you wanted with newly printed bills? Why bother with budgets – household, local, state, federal – if money was not a store of value…but something to be conjured, ex nihilo, for ever and ever, amen?

But wait, we hear you say. What about… inflation? Wasn’t that supposed to be a kind of check on irrational exuberance at the printing press level? “Remember the MMTers said the only real constraint on spending money into existence was inflation,” recalled Dan Denning in an email to the BPR team this very morning. “And if inflation got out of hand, the government could always tax it out of existence… or reduce spending. You would have thought the last three years were a giant rebuke to the MMT crowd, with inflation at 40-year highs.”

As most non-central bankers and non-econ. professors comprehend, the more currency you ink, the less each and every preceding currency unit is worth. Just ask the Argentines, Zimbabweans, Venezuelans, etc. If constrain-free printing were a path to riches, these nations’ streets would be paved with gold. And yet… the situation in Argentina is so bad, voters there are even considering electing for president a (wait for it)… libertarian!

Moreover, as Dan explains, the MMT problem is not simply one of innumeracy… it’s also bound up in basic illiteracy, too...“Capital is not credit and credit is not currency,” he observed. “A government can issue as much currency as it likes. It can't print capital.” The idea is simple enough even artificial intelligence can grasp it. Dan had Google’s AI produce this neat little table. Feel free to share it with any MMTers lurking in your midst."

"Gerald Celente, Gregory Mannarino, 8/24/23"

Full screen recommended.
Gerald Celente, 8/24/23
"Bank Downgrades and the Start of the Crash"
"In this video, renowned economist Gerald Celente addresses the alarming issue of bank downgrades and their implications on the global economy. Join us as we delve deep into Celente's comprehensive analysis of the current financial climate, unveiling the imminent crash that may be lurking around the corner. With his decades of expertise and foresight, Celente offers invaluable insights into the precarious state of the banking sector, shedding light on the potential domino effect it may have on markets worldwide. Don’t miss this eye-opening conversation that probes into the heart of economic risks and explores the actions we can take to safeguard our financial well-being."
Comments here:

Gregory Mannarino, AM 8/24/23
"The BLS Admits 'Job Numbers Are Fake!' 
Banks Cut Off Credit To US Small Businesses"
Comments here:

Dan, I Allegedly, "You Can Steal What You Want"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, 8/24/23
"You Can Steal What You Want"
"We are hearing about problems with retail establishments. Not only are sales down, but here in California, they want to legalize theft. They want to make it a crime for you to stop a shoplifter."
Comments here:

"Adventures With Danno, Massive Price Increases At Kroger!"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, AM 8/24/23
"Massive Price Increases At Kroger! 
This Is Ridiculous! What Now!?"
"In today's vlog, we are at Kroger and are noticing some massive price increases on groceries! It is getting rough as many families are struggling to put food on the table!"
Comments here:

Wednesday, August 23, 2023

"Things Can Only Get Worse From Here - Housing Market About To Feel The Pain As Buyers Vanish"

Jeremiah Babe, 8/23/23
"Things Can Only Get Worse From Here -
 Housing Market About To Feel The Pain As Buyers Vanish"
Comments here:

"Adventures With Danno, PM 8/23/23"

Adventures With Danno, PM 8/23/23
"3 World Events That Are Going To Cause
More Food Shortages & Rising Prices"
"We are discussing 3 world events going on right now that are most 
certainly going to cause food shortages, and price increases all around the world!"
Comments here:

"15 Big Box Stores That Are Being Destroyed In 2023"

Full screen recommended.
Epic Economist, 8/23/23
"15 Big Box Stores That Are Being Destroyed In 2023"

"As Forbes analysts once put it: "Retailers that have no business still being in business will go out of business." And that's the scenario we're looking into in the later half of the year. Unfortunately, for many dying companies, it's about time. 2023 is on track to be the worst year for retail bankruptcies since 2020. Many strip-mall mainstays are exiting the market right now as foot traffic continues to collapse in many cities. Major brands like Amazon and Target are already conducting the second or third round of store closings this year as they prepare to fight the downturn that is now unfolding all around us. Several big-box stores that have been in trouble for a while are finally saying "so long" and completely disappearing from the US retail scene.

For example, Buy Buy Baby is now saying its final goodbyes as parent company Bed Bath & Beyond concludes its bankruptcy liquidation process. The chain that sold products for infants and young children is now closing down all of its locations after debtors canceled an auction of the company's entire business, including its online operations, after failing to secure a more attractive offer. Buy Buy Baby's stores, which Bed Bath & Beyond had purchased for $67 million in 2007, were seen as one of the retailers more valuable assets, and many industry watchers expected a buyer to save the chain. In a letter released by former Bed Bath & Beyond activist investor Ryan Cohen he said he believed Buybuy Baby was “much more valuable than the Bed Bath & Beyond ’s entire market capitalization.” Unfortunately, the two retailers are riding into the sunset together in 2023.

According to Neil Saunders, the managing director at research firm GlobalData, “It was almost a matter of when, rather than if, these companies would go under.” The pandemic bought many retailers a little more time. Consumers spent freely, flush with cash from stimulus checks, while retailers were also able to borrow money on the cheap. “Covid masked some of the weak players,” said Steve Dennis, founder of SageBerry Consulting. “It staved off the reckoning.”

Now that the pandemic ended, it’s back to reality and retailers are confronting the problems of the past: too many stores, too much debt, and too few customers. Those who loaded up on debt are having a harder time making payments as they watch sales and profits deteriorate. “A lot of these companies were essentially zombie companies pre-Covid,” said Craig Ganz, an attorney at Ballard Spahr who has handled retail bankruptcies for several decades. “They were primarily surviving on debt, and now the debt has become simply too expensive for them to afford.” For that reason, many brands are dying out so rapidly right now, and many more will face the same fate as we enter another difficult period for our economy.

The spike in the number of bankruptcies comes at a time when Americans are cutting back on discretionary spending and directing more of their budgets to afford the rising gas, groceries, and other staple. Recession talks are intensifying in the past couple of months, and major companies are already conducting mass layoffs. A lot more could go wrong before the year is over. That's why today, we decided to list some brands that are being destroyed in 2023."
Comments here:
o
The Economic Ninja, 8 /23/23
"Huge Warning From Macy's, Lowe's, And Dick's"
Comments here:

"Gerald Celente, Trends Journal 8/23/23"

Gerald Celente, Trends Journal 8/23/23
"Judge Andrew Napolitano, America: 
Morally Challenged And Ethically Obtuse"
"The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present facts and truth over fear and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for what’s next in these increasingly turbulent times."
Comments here:

"Morally challenged?" Impossible. 
There is NO morality in this country to challenge...

Musical Interlude: 2002, "Cycle of Time"; "Challenge From Heaven

Full screen recommended.
2002, "Cycle of Time"

Full screen recommended.
2002, "Challenge From Heaven"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Sculpted by stellar winds and radiation, a magnificent interstellar dust cloud by chance has assumed this recognizable shape. Fittingly named the Horsehead Nebula, it is some 1,500 light-years distant, embedded in the vast Orion cloud complex.
About five light-years "tall", the dark cloud is cataloged as Barnard 33 and is visible only because its obscuring dust is silhouetted against the glowing red emission nebula IC 434. Stars are forming within the dark cloud. Contrasting blue reflection nebula NGC 2023, surrounding a hot, young star, is at the lower left. The gorgeous color image combines both narrowband and broadband images recorded using three different telescopes.”

Chet Raymo, “A Sense Of Place”



“A Sense Of Place”
by Chet Raymo

“It would be hard to find two writers more different than Eudora Welty and Edward Abbey. Welty was a Pulitzer Prize-winning author of stories and novels who lived all her life in Jackson, Mississippi, in the house in which she was born, the beloved spinster aunt of American letters. Abbey was a hard-drinking, butt-kicking nature writer and conservationist best known for his books on the American Southwest. Both writers are favorites of mine. Both were great champions of place. I always wondered what it would have been like if they got together. As far as I know, that never happened. But let’s imagine a conversation. I have taken extracts from Welty’s essay “Some Notes on River Country” (1944) and from Abbey’s essay “The Great American Desert (1977) and interleaved them.

“This little chain of lost towns between Vicksburg and Natchez.”

“This desert, all deserts, any deserts.”

“On the shady stream banks hang lady’s eardrops, fruits and flowers dangling pale jade. The passionflower puts its tendrils where it can, its strange flowers of lilac rays with their little white towers shining out, or its fruit, the maypop, hanging.”

“Oily growths like the poison ivy – oh yes, indeed – that flourish in sinister profusion on the dank walls above the quicksand down those corridors of gloom and labyrinthine monotony that men call canyons.”

“All creepers with trumpets and panicles of scarlet and yellow cling to the treetops. There is a vine that grows to great heights, with heart-shaped leaves as big and soft as summer hats.”

“Everything in the desert either stings, stabs, stinks, or sticks. You will find the flora here as venomous, hooked, barbed, thorny, prickly, needled, saw-toothed, hairy, stickered, mean, bitter, sharp, wiry and fierce as the animals.”

“Too pretty for any harsh fate, with its great mossy trees and old camellias.”

“Something about the desert inclines all living things to harshness and acerbity.”

“The clatter of hoofs and the bellow of boats have gone. The Old Natchez Trace has sunk out of use. The river has gone away and left the landings. But life does not forsake any place.”

“In the Sonoran Desert, Phoenix will get you if the sun, snakes, bugs, and arthropods don’t. In the Mojave Desert, it’s Las Vegas. Up north in the Great Basin Desert, your heart will break, seeing the strip mines open up and the power plants rise…”

“The Negro Baptist church, weathered black with a snow-white door, has red hens in the yard. The old galleried stores are boarded up. The missing houses were burned – they were empty, and the little row of Negro inhabitants have carried them off for firewood.”

“…the highway builders, land developers, weapons testers, power producers, clear cutters, oil drillers, dam beavers, subdividers.”

“Eventually you see people, of course. Women have little errands, and the old men play checkers at a table in the front of the one open store. And the people’s faces are good.”

“Californicating.”

“To go there, you start west from Port Gibson. Postmen would arrive here blowing their horns like Gabriel, after riding three hundred wilderness miles from Tennessee.”

“Why go into the desert? Really, why do it? That sun, roaring at you all day long. The fetid, tepid, vapid little water holes full of cannibal beetles, spotted toads, horsehair worms, liver flukes. Why go there?”

“I have felt many times there is a sense of place as powerful as if it were visible and walking and could touch me. A place that ever was lived in is like a fire that never goes out. Sometimes it gives out glory, sometimes its little light must be sought out to be seen.”

“Why the desert, when you could be camping by a stream of pure Rocky Mountain spring water. We have centipedes, millipedes, tarantulas, black widows, brown recluses, Gila monsters, the deadly poisonous coral snakes, and the giant hairy desert scorpions. Plus an immense variety of near-infinite number of ants, midges, gnats, bloodsucking flies, and blood-guzzling mosquitoes.”

“Much beauty has gone, many little things of life. To light up the night there are no mansions, no celebrations. Wild birds fly now at the level where people on boat deck once were strolling and talking.”

“In the American Southwest, only the wilderness is worth saving.”

“There is a sense of place there, to keep life from being extinguished, like a cup of the hands to hold a flame.”

“A friend and I took a walk up beyond Coconino County, Arizona. I found an arrow sign, pointed to the north. Nothing of any unusual interest that I could see – only the familiar sun-blasted sandstone, a few scrubby clumps of blackbush and prickly pear, a few acres of nothing where only a lizard could graze. I studied the scene with care. But there was nothing out there. Nothing at all. Nothing but the desert. Nothing but the silent world.”

“Perhaps it is the sense of place that gives us the belief that passionate things, in some essence, endure.”

“In my case, it was love at first sight. The kind of love that makes a man selfish, possessive, irritable…”

“New life will be built upon these things.”

“…an unrequited and excessive love.”

“It is this.”

“That’s why.”